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Way Station
by Clifford D. Simak
1963 Hugo
Award Winner
Got it
from: Our Library
225 Pages
As Way Station begins, we learn that the CIA has been monitoring Enoch
Wallace for many years. He has committed
no crime; he is no threat to national security.
Instead they concerned because he is nearly 125 years old. He fought in the Civil War at the Battle of
Gettysburg and no one can explain his elongated years, nor do his neighbors
care to figure it out. What they find when
they start to investigate his property more closely is alarming to say the
least.
Turning a phrase
Way station is
a welcome respite from the pace and paleness of many of the other early Hugo
winners. The way that Simak could create
a sense of place and fill it in with the kind of details that stick with you,
was something completely different than the other winners up to this
point. Imagine you visited the same
valley every summer, then one year you don’t make it until autumn and you see
all the colors of the leaves and smell the crisp air and it is an entirely new
place. That was exactly my experience
with Way Station. Well…not literally,
but so much SF lures you in with incredible science and fantastic spaceships or
intergalactic warfare and just generally assaults the senses into shock and awe. Simak invites you in, pours you tea and
introduces you to a character-led
story that is both relaxing and as gripping as any high-flying SF.
I may have
complained before that some, especially Zelazny, like to throw their readers
into the middle of a story and let them catch up in their own time, likely many
pages in. Simak eases you into a world
which is every bit as strange, but helps you to feel so much a part of it you
can’t help being interested from the very first page. Of course both styles are absolutely
respectable methods for beginning a tale, but in this case, Simak introduces
his characters with a grace and thoughtfulness that rivals any of the best
literature (mainstream or genre). Just
have a taste or two:
The noise was ended now. The smoke drifted like thin, gray wisps of
fog above the tortured earth and the shattered fences and peach trees that had
been whittled into toothpicks by the cannon fire. For a moment silence, if not peace, fell upon
those few square miles of ground where just a while before men had screamed and
torn at one another in the frenzy of old hate and had contended in an ancient
striving and then had fallen apart, exhausted.
…
There were proud names
that were the prouder now, but now no more than names to echo down the ages—the
Iron Brigade, the 5th New Hampshire, the 1st Minnesota,
the 2nd Massachusets, the 16th Maine.
And there was Enoch Wallace.
He still held the shattered musket and there were
blisters on his hands. His face was
smudged with powder. His shoes were
caked with dust and blood.
He was still alive.
Chapter
1
“His name,” said Lewis, “is Enoch Wallace. Chronologically, his is one hundred and
twenty-four years old. He was born on a
farm a few miles from the town of Millville in Wisconsin, April 22, 1840, and
he is the only child of Jedediah and Amanda Wallace. He enlisted among the first of them when Abe
Lincoln called for volunteers. He was
with the Iron Brigade, which was virtually wiped out at Gettysburg in 1863.”
Chapter
2
You could
see the smoke right? Smell the gunpowder
and just picture yourself among the peach trees? I know I could. And if that wasn’t enough to make you want to
dive head first into Way Station,
then he begins Chapter 2 with that second gem.
Come on—that’s just too much fun!
Building a universe
Amidst
those beautiful descriptors exists some pretty loosey-goosey scientific
descriptions and alien creatures. Simak
was nowhere afraid to dismiss laws of physics or explanations of some of the
underpinnings of the universe. In
contrast to such precision in his storytelling elsewhere, is that a bad thing?
My first
thought is that this would normally detract somewhat from any story. Certainly people always notice, and many are
bothered, when some anachronistic bit science or defunct company name pulls you
out of the story. When alien technology is
so foreign and unexplainable, or when something is so glaringly ridiculous, it
can interrupt a story just as much as the worst anachronism.
This is
exactly the kind of thing that happens in Way Station. What’s that—an amorphous blob in a tank,
clicking at Enoch to leave him alone?
How does that work? Not sure, but
let’s not think about it too much and just move on. How about the suggestion to make everyone in
the world too stupid to understand technology?
Well, practically everything we use is some kind of technology and that
so much of the meaning of our existence comes from our interaction with technology
(so says Heidegger anyway) so I’m not sure exactly how that might work.
But you know
what? Those “problems” are also what
make this book wicked cool! Super-freakazoid aliens and wacky
theoretical science are pretty rad in themselves and Simak, finds a way to make
it rad-er! In Enoch’s universe, it is precisely the
unintelligibility that contributes to his feeling of loneliness, hopelessness
and on-again off-again pessimistic view of humanity. I mean, what could have had me questioning
the story so much that it could have been difficult to read, actually ended up
propelling the story and contributed to the feeling of dis-ease about the
world. Yeah, that’s bad…Michael Jackson bad.
Recommendation
If the Clifford D. Simak Estate were looking to
pay someone to just read and re-read this book over and over forever…I’d do
it. No lie. I can’t say enough good things about this novel. It reads like literature, poetry sometimes,
and sounds like SF. There are crazy
aliens, sweet space travel, an awesome house, beautiful landscapes, complex
personalities and despair at the human condition. Is there really anything more you could ask
for?
HEP SCORE
Universe 5/5
Social/Political
Climate 5/5
Dialogue 4/5
(It was good, but this was more a contemplative novel)
Scientific
Wonders 5/5
Characters
5/5
Overall
24/25
The die
being cast
This
week’s book is Stand on Zanzibar by John
Brunner. Huge. Too many words. My week is going to suck.
Next
week’s book is Gateway by Frederik Pohl. I have heard and been interested in so much
of his work, but this will be my first bite, so I’m pretty psyched.
Excellent! One of my all-time favorites, along with "City." I was also completely smitten by this book. Really cool aliens, and some decent characters.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, I think if I had read this book as a teenager, the aliens would have been a big disappointment. It wasn't until later that I really started to enjoy that type of thing. I guess that's one reason to be glad for my late start into SF.
DeleteArgh, I forgot to mention, that house is also very very cool!
DeleteUH YEAH! Loved the secret entrance!
DeleteAnother great review, Jeremy! I've re-posted it on the WWEnd blog. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks Dave! Judging from the other reviews that have gone up this month though, it's gonna be another hard fought attempt at everlasting glory ;)
Delete"Simak invites you in, pours you tea and introduces you to a character-led story that is both relaxing and as gripping as any high-flying SF." tantalizing. and then I began to worry with the logic-problems... and you go and remark upon how it contributes to the tension, to say nothing of providing for awesome weirdness. great review!
ReplyDeleteI am going to definitely make note of this one.
~L (omphaloskepsis)
Thanks! I do think some of the vagueness was beneficial. Enoch was always vacillating between feeling a representative of the human race and feeling completely disconnected from it. And those times when crazy aliens showed up, there was no telling how it would affect his outlook. Good stuff!
Delete